COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Leaders of Estonia and Finland want other European countries to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens, saying they shouldn’t be able to vacation in Europe while the Russian government is waging a war in Ukraine leads.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that “visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right” and that it is “time to end tourism from Russia now”.
A day earlier, her counterpart in Finland, Sanna Marin, told Finnish broadcaster YLE: “It’s not right that Russians can lead normal lives, travel in Europe and be tourists while Russia is waging an aggressive, brutal war of aggression in Europe. ”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went even further in an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, saying all Western countries should ban Russian tourists.
Estonia and Finland both border Russia and are members of the European Union, which banned air travel from Russia after invading Ukraine. But the Russians can still travel to both countries by land, and then apparently take flights to other European destinations.
The calls for a travel ban have sparked outrage in Russia, both from the Kremlin and its critics. Opposition public figures condemned the comments on social media posts as fueling Moscow’s anti-Western propaganda and not helpful in ending the war.
“I think that over time, common sense will somehow manifest itself and those who made such statements will come to their senses,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
YLE reported last week that Russian companies have started offering road trips from St. Petersburg to Helsinki and Lappeenranta airports in Finland, which have direct connections to several locations in Europe. The second largest city in Russia is about 300 kilometers from the Finnish capital.
Visas issued by Finland are valid in most of the European travel zones known as the “Schengen Area” which consists of 26 countries: 22 EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Normally, people and goods move freely between these countries without border controls. Nineteen other countries outside of this travel area allow the entry of foreigners with a Schengen visa.
Finland resumed accepting tourist visa applications in Russia on July 1, ending months of travel restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some EU countries no longer issue visas to Russians, including Latvia, which made the decision this month because of the war.
The visa issue is expected to be discussed at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers on Aug. 31, YLE reported.
“I believe that this issue will be raised even more at future European Council meetings. My personal position is that tourism should be restricted,” Marin told the Finnish broadcaster.
Peskov said on Tuesday that calls for travel bans usually come from countries that Moscow has already classified as “hostile” and “many of these countries are forgotten in their hostility.”
Putin’s close aide and Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, dismissed the Estonian Prime Minister’s statement, adding menacingly: “I just want to remind you of another saying: ‘The fact that you are free is not your merit, but our mistake. ‘”
Zelenskyy told the Washington Post that “the main sanctions are to close the borders” to Russian travelers “because the Russians are taking someone else’s country.”
Russians should “live in their own world until they change their philosophy,” Zelenskyy said, adding that such restrictions should apply to all Russians, including those who leave the country and oppose the war.
It contrasts with what he said in March, a month after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine, when he urged the Russians to leave the country so as not to fund the war with their taxes.
When asked about Zelensky’s statements, Kremlin spokesman Peskov called them a “statement … that speaks for itself” that Moscow takes “extremely negatively”.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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This story has been corrected to show that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s interview with the Washington Post took place on Monday, not Tuesday.